There is rest in communion with our Father.I left work an hour early last night and refreshed my soul in prayer. I recognized that my personal devotion time has been waning as of late, crowded out by a busy calendar. This must change.
While my life is blessed to be filled with blessings such as christian friendships, bible studies, etc., there is no substitute for personal time with our Creator. I've learned that sometimes even "good things" can become idols if they crowd out the amount of time we spend in communion with Christ.
15 comments:
Lord I pray for a renewal of my spirit in my relationship with you. Please forgive me for letting other things - even ministry get in the way of my time with you. I thank you for your mercy and your forgiveness Lord. In Jesus' precious name, Amen.
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Luke: Thank you for the daily reminder of where my heart should be. Your zeal for the Lord is amazing, and your words are always appreciated!
Why the informalness of using 'you' in your prayers instead of the more reverant Thee and Thou like you where taught? :(
Yes, I do agree, Luke's Blog post was a good reminder. We all need to be refocused from time to time it seems.
dear anonymous, did you forget your name or lose it in the back 40? anyway, did you know that not everyone was taught to use Thee's and Thou's in their prayers? some people don't feel like they HAVE to in order to communicate w/ God. here's my question to you, God is pleased when we do show that reverence to Him, but which do you think He values more, a someone who pops our Thee's and Thou's b/c that's what they were taught (not b/c it's reverent), or someone who doesn't always use "respectful prayer language" but truely has a reverent and servant heart? Just a thought.
Luke: thank you SO MUCH for the reminder. this is DEFINTELY one thing i've had to work on in the past couple weeks. i pray we ALL look to Him everyday for consant guidance.
because of HIM,
megan
PS- gonna see you in champaign this weekend?
crikvmp- a cricket @ haolloween-time (turns into a vampire)
Anonymous: Thanks for the comment!
I apologize if my wording took away from the focus of the prayer for you. It was not my intent at all to seem irreverant. If you'd like to email me or call me, I would be happy to discuss it with you.
Meg: I appreciate your thoughts!
You might want to clarify the tone of your first statement. One of the downsides of typing is that it is hard to infuse "tone of voice" into the sentences. Your first few sentences have the potential to come across kinda negative.
Let's remember to discuss these issues with Christian love at the forefront of our minds. Satan is our mutual enemy!
I'm sorry everyone. I did not mean to come across as cross or railing.
I realize that not everyone was taught this way of praying to our Heavenly Father. (and for them, they don't know any better and that's fine)
But once you know or are taught something (not just in regards to this, but many other things)you are accountable.
It was just suppose to be a loving reminder to those who do know better. For them to hold fast to what they were taught and not give in to the worldy influences of today.
"Faith or our father living still. We will be true to Thee, till death"
Let's all strive for this (to be true till death) each and every day in our walk serving our Lord. :)
Just something to think about when it comes to time spent with the Lord. Has anyone ever considered tithing there time? Again just a thought.
Luke again great reminder!
In His precious name,
Byron
Tithing our time, huh? hmmm... never heard of that before. What would that be in reference to? Time alone with our Creator? Or time of serving?
i DO apoligize for my comment coming across negative. it was surely NOT meant to be that... one bad thing about all the typing/internet/etc. i hope no one was offended by anything i said! interesting thought byron: tithing our time i'll think more on this and let you know what i think.
God has given you a wisdom beyond your years.
Like your blog Luke, reminders are good.
I would like to know what everyone thinks about traditions. I am not talking about doctrine. For example, it is a tradition that in our (my) church the men wear a suit to church. Would it be ok if I decided not to? That’s just one example. What about growing a beard? Or something else for that matter.
Anonymous's comment made me think of this. Thats why I bring it up.
Thanks for the reminder
Well let’s say you tithe 10% of your time your awake. So this is going to vary depending on the hours your awake, but if you awake 17 hours a day that would be 1.7 hours a day and 11.9 a week. For me it would be hard to read, pray, and meditate 1.7 hours a day. So if we include church and bible studies and service work I would say I would be getting close for the week average. However the key is that all your tithed time is not all service work and church, or it’s not all reading and praying. You need to have a mixture of it all. It’s like going to school most of the time you can’t just go to the class to pass, or you can’t just read and study to pass. We need it all church, reading, and praying.
I know I don’t “tithe” 10% of the time I am awake of each day (unless you count blogging :)). It’s just something that I have thought about for awhile if we are suppose to tithe our money why not time?
In His Precious Name,
Byron
This is to Tom on his traditions question.
All I want to add is that... if we all study the Bible and know the Truth, the WHOLE Truth and nothing but the Truth. Then we as a church will have the proper foundation. Then we need to figure out WHY we believe what we believe and not just blindly believe what someone says over the pulpet.
Then if we know what we believe, the Truth, and WHY we believe it, then the future will take care of itself.
Just my encouragement not to follow blindly so we are an equaly yoked church.
O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.
1 Timothy 6:20-21
Slighty out of contexted but if you continue to study the Bible you'll understand the concept I wanted to illistrate.
Love you all
Tonto
I'm sorry that doesn't really answer your question Tom.
Also I need to add that my line about- "Just my encouragement not to follow blindly so we are an equaly yoked church." is NOT meant to be taking as "just do your own thing or whatever you want." But it was meant as encouragement to study the Bible, to understand the Bible and to understand ourselves. Our actions, our thoughts, motives and also to understand why submission is requested by God.
Also that we want to bring glory and honor to God out of respect. (Dressing nice is an act of love <1 Cor. 13> an act of honor and of respect.
We should NEVER do things out spite or rebelion. But we are called do live peacably. Which relates well to Lukes lates post, "Glory to God!" and what Ayren and Jaclyn commented about not offening others.
I'm sorry if there was any confussion there. I was told that my wording wasn't making it clear.
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